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Monday, July 28, 2008

WIP Update

I owe a big thanks to my DH, who sat patiently and listened to the plot of Clara and the Cowboy last night and helped me unsnarl where I'd gone wrong. Today I was able to put more than 2K words on the ms. (After deleting about 700 that were just WRONG!)

The picture of the cowboy is Clay Walker, country music star, but I've used him as the template for Alec McConnell, the hero of my WIP. He's struggling mightily with unforgiveness and anger, and needs Clara to smooth some of his rough edges.

And this is Clara, my heroine. She's come home from exile to find the men in her life wanting to coddle her and insulate her from the realities of existence on the

frontier. But she's adventurous, with a longing to spread her wings and fly.

Clara has given me no end of trouble in this book, being too willing to acquiesce to the desires of her father and the men he employs, backing down from conflict whenever it arises. I will need to go back in on the second draft and give her more pluck and color.

Today saw the word counter tick up above the 75% mark. I'm hoping to finish the first draft this week. I've gotten to the action-packed part, so it should go quickly. I'm thinking I may need to go back in and add the bad guy's POV. He's been fun to write and has really fleshed out as I've progressed through the story, so I will need to go back and amend his personality to reflect just who he is. I think I can do this best by adding the occasional scene from his POV.

Only 51 days until Conference. It is hard to believe how quickly it is racing toward us. School starts for us a week from today. (Hence my desire to finish the first draft of this WIP before then.) I'm kid-free this week while my offspring have fun at camp. It sure is quiet around here.

5 comments:

He is waaay too cute and she (I can't remember her name, but I like her as an actress) seems to fit with him. You've done a great job at the numbers. I'm working on a short (off and on since Sat. night) for a magazine contest. 2500 words needed and only 500 to go. What exactly is a WIP?

Good lookin' fella, but I hear tell his little brother got the looks and charm in the family. (-; Congrats on your progress. The Young One goes back to school four weeks from Tues. Summer went by way to fast.

What yummy characters! So glad you are doing so well on your word count. I've given up until after the California trip and the wedding (we leave 6 am Wednesday). My mind has been in a frenzy with two NEW plot twists that I'm dying to get to. Such is the life of a writer--so many things competing for my time. See you soon in Minneapolis!